Psychology of self

"[2] Current views of the Self in psychology position it as playing an integral part in human motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity.

[3] It may be the case that we can now successfully attempt to create experiences of the Self in a neural process with cognitive consequences, which will give us insight into the elements that compose the complex selves of modern identity.

[9] Nevertheless, Winnicott did not undervalue the role of the false self in the human personality, regarding it as a necessary form of defensive organization similar to that of a caretaker that protects the true self hides behind so that it may continue to exist.

[11] As for the true self, Winnicott linked it to playing "hide and seek"' designed to protect one's real self against exploitation,[14] without entirely forfeiting the ability to relate to others.

By knowing about their own ego states, a person can use each one in particular situations in order to enhance their experience or make new social connections.

[19] Social psychology acknowledges that "one of the most important life tasks each a person faces is understanding who they are and how they feel about themselves".

[20] However, rather than absolute knowledge, it would seem that 'a healthy sense of Self calls for both accurate self-knowledge and protective self-enhancement, in just the right amounts at just the right times.

The agent self resides over everything that involves decision making, self-control, taking charge in situations, and actively responding.

[25] Instead of focusing on the levels of class, race, and gender structure, this perspective seeks to understand the self in the way an individual lives their life on a moment-by-moment basis.

This is also hinted in dynamical evolutionary social psychology where a set of decision rules generates complex behavior.

[30] It has been suggested that transitory mental constructions within episodic memory form a self-memory system that grounds the goals of the working self,[30] but research upon those with amnesia find they have a coherent sense of self based upon preserved conceptual autobiographical knowledge,[31] and semantic facts, and so conceptual knowledge rather than episodic memory.

[32] "The nature of personal narratives depends on highly conceptual and ‘story-like' information about one's life, which resides at the general event level of autobiographical memory and is thus unlikely to rely on more event-specific episodic systems.